Local residents of the Spanish province called Almeria, nicknamed ‘tarantos,’ have given their name to a Flamenco cante and toque, an exceptionally rhythmic style with close ties to Tarantas. Tarantos have a rigorous, assertive compas in 2/4 or 4/4 time. Tarantas, on the other hand, are a toque libre. Tarantas is a form of Fandango Grande which began in Almeria and its nearby neighbors in the Spanish Levante.
Tarantas grew out of the folk music of these southeastern Spanish provinces. They tell assorted stories, mostly about the mining industry, a business which was (and still is today) fraught with danger. The songs, therefore, have a plethora of tragic material to draw from, giving voice to the sorrows and deprivations of the miners’ lives. According to one theory, Andalusian laborers who traveled to work in the mines of La Union brought them to Almeria. Yet another theory argues that the coplas were originally local ones that musicians transformed into the Flamenco style of Cante. Whatever their origin, they speak to the range of human emotion.
Unique-sounding harmony and ornamentation give both Tarantas and Tarantos an Eastern flavor. Played in the Phrygian mode based on F sharp, the music has a distinguishing dissonant sound, produced by the basic chord pattern having F and C on the three bass strings against three open treble strings, forming the chord consisting of the notes F, C, F, G, B, and E.